Walkability – Business Improvement District Hubhttp://bizdistricts.com
Thu, 05 Feb 2015 17:59:48 +0000en-US
hourly
1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.3Stores for free! Drastic actions aim to fill empty storefrontshttp://bizdistricts.com/stores-free-drastic-actions-aim-fill-empty-storefronts/
http://bizdistricts.com/stores-free-drastic-actions-aim-fill-empty-storefronts/#respondThu, 05 Feb 2015 17:48:50 +0000http://bizdistricts.com/?p=489Ever struggled trying to fill empty storefronts? Or frustrated by For Lease signs? The truth is that busy downtowns and Main Streets are good for everybody. They increase health and wellness in nearby neighborhoods, and return vitality and safety to streets. But sometimes new business owners need help. One Main St. program has a solution ...

Ever struggled trying to fill empty storefronts? Or frustrated by For Lease signs?

The truth is that busy downtowns and Main Streets are good for everybody. They increase health and wellness in nearby neighborhoods, and return vitality and safety to streets. But sometimes new business owners need help.

One Main St. program has a solution to convince new owners to step up and open a business. And it’s simpler than you might think.

The CreateHereNow program aims to offer free rent to new businesses. It allows empty storefronts to be occupied for the first three months at no charge – with hopes that these eventually will be paying leaseholders.

The program, which is featured on The Day, has been implemented at 20+ cities across the US state of Connecticut. The $500,000 program is run through the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

The groups that have passed muster to become the city’s first CreateHereNow storefronts include an independent eyeglass retailer, a cooperative boutique, bike repair shop, wellness cooperative, furniture and design store, skateboard shop and a children’s learning center.

In Toledo, Ohio, a similar program, featured in The Blade has been launched by the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.

According to The Blade, the project, DevelUp Toledo (as in, develop), launched in November, and the people who run it will host Shark Tank-like business pitch sessions. A committee hears the pitches and chooses one to three winners.

Winners will receive one year of free rent on the condition that they participate in a year of intense business instruction, working with accountants, lawyers, and other experts, with the goal of becoming a viable, long-lasting, successful business.

Colleen Kardasz, the chamber’s small business development center project manager, said private funding will be used to “white box” vacant spaces — providing basic renovations to make a space business-ready. The business owner, the landlord, and the DevelUp group will negotiate a lease agreement.

Tenants will get a year of free rent, but they will have to pay 75 percent of market-rate rent in the second year of the deal. In the third year, the business will pay full rent. Part of rent from the third year would go back to the DevelUp program to keep it going.

Throwing money at problems doesn’t solve them. But when you work with entrepreneurs and landlords to come up with creative solutions, the benefits often far outweigh the costs.

Let’s be creative and fill empty storefronts around the world. Our children will thank us.

]]>http://bizdistricts.com/stores-free-drastic-actions-aim-fill-empty-storefronts/feed/0Pop-up street furniture revealedhttp://bizdistricts.com/pop-street-furniture-revealed/
http://bizdistricts.com/pop-street-furniture-revealed/#commentsWed, 04 Feb 2015 22:46:25 +0000http://bizdistricts.com/?p=472If you’re involved in any way with public spaces, you’ve experienced the positives and negatives of street furniture. Sometimes those lovely benches are the perfect fit. Sometimes they frankly get in the way. When you’re setting up a stage, organizing a family event or featuring buskers, a great wide-open, unencumbered public space appeals to everyone. ...

If you’re involved in any way with public spaces, you’ve experienced the positives and negatives of street furniture. Sometimes those lovely benches are the perfect fit. Sometimes they frankly get in the way.

When you’re setting up a stage, organizing a family event or featuring buskers, a great wide-open, unencumbered public space appeals to everyone.

This pop-up chair shows the possibilities for boardwalks and open public spaces. (stealmag)

When it’s lunchtime and everyone wants to bask in the sunshine and eat lunch outdoors, you wish for tables, chairs, benches and fountains.

Introducing the ultimate solution: Pop-up street furniture. This furniture folds and disappears into the sidewalk. It is fabulous for public spaces and creates great urban design.

Now you can have the luxury of benches, tables and chairs for part of the season and a flat space for events, gatherings and setting up something crazy or unique.

Now you can have places to sit and gather on sunny days and the perfect surface for shoveling snow in the winter.

These cool pop-up bike racks disappear into the sidewalk when not in use. (buzzfeed)

Now you can have a chess tournament and a mini-football game, held hours apart, in exactly the same spot – without any messy take-down or installation.

We know how the murphy bed has the potential to change small apartments into spacious rooms. We have seen tremendous space saving designs for our homes and cars. But the public realm has traditionally been lacking in the innovation department.

This street garbage can design, by Christine Marriot, is comprised of four short, slim plastic posts, one for each type of recyclable. The slim poles keep the sidewalk clear by being mere entry points. The actual waste tumbles into sacks kept below grade. All four posts would be mounted on a single steel base.

But, why is that? Where in the world is space saving more important than in our precious public spaces. As cities take on greater population growth, our walkable space becomes increasingly precious.

We need green spaces, open spaces, sitting and eating spaces, but the footprint we have to work with is often tiny.

]]>http://bizdistricts.com/pop-street-furniture-revealed/feed/1Main Street will defeat Big Box in David vs. Goliath battlehttp://bizdistricts.com/main-street-will-defeat-big-box-david-vs-goliath-battle/
http://bizdistricts.com/main-street-will-defeat-big-box-david-vs-goliath-battle/#respondTue, 09 Sep 2014 19:30:32 +0000http://bizdistricts.com/?p=193I’ve heard that big box stores will kill off my favourite local shops. I’ve been told that shopping giants, like Wal Mart, Target and Home Depot, will never stop growing. And I’ve been assured that “For Lease” signs on Main Street are something I’m going to have to get used to. I’ve even read articles ...

I’ve heard that big box stores will kill off my favourite local shops. I’ve been told that shopping giants, like Wal Mart, Target and Home Depot, will never stop growing. And I’ve been assured that “For Lease” signs on Main Street are something I’m going to have to get used to. I’ve even read articles that claim we should board up our small retail spaces and convert them to homes.

I have no intention of buying into the hype. Quite frankly, if I were them; the purveyors of giant warehouses of cheap stuff – I’d be extremely worried.

What do you feel when you drive up to that massive, mostly empty parking lot on the edge of town? What inspires you when the double doors spring open in front of you and the smell of plastic greets your nostrils? How does the cavernous environment make you feel connected to your community? And what kind of meaningful interactions do you have with the people who work there?

In the long aisles, at the jammed cash register, and on the trip back to your isolated car, how do you feel? How about the drive to and from this superstore?

You may take for granted the notion that big stores will continue to grow, and little shops are headed to their demise. But things are changing.

Not long ago, we lived in cities that emptied out at night, giving way to suburban lives. People sought large yards and put up with loading their mini vans with gas to head off to the nearest shopping mall.

“This decrease in outer suburban development isn’t “urbanist wishful thinking”: it is fact. It’s also fact that central cities are growing again, after decades of decline – and, for the first time in a century, growing at a faster rate than their suburbs.

Population adjusted vehicle miles driven. dshort.com/switchboard.nrdc.org

Benfield points to annual decreases in vehicle miles driven (population adjusted) that peaked in 2005, and have now reduced to levels last seen in 1995.

Why are people seeking more urban lives, and talking about walkability scores before purchasing homes? Why are they buying smaller cars and speaking about bike lanes and transit lines rather than highways and bigger roads?

We are fed up with impersonal box stores, plunked down in the middle of nowhere. Tired of everything being supersized and “in driving distance.” And we are finally rejecting the broken model everywhere rather than embracing it. We don’t talk about superstores as places we enjoy going, or like to shop in. We deal with them as another tough fact of our lives, but the revolt is starting to take shape, and we are leading it.

Yes, we still can’t escape the near constant predictions of the death of small independent shops. In the UK, the decay of the High Street is a never ending discussion that greets newspaper readers every morning with a gloomy forecast.

In actual fact, the large, impersonal shopping experience is what is dying.

“About 15% of U.S. malls will fail or be converted into non-retail space within the next 10 years, according to Green Street Advisors, a real estate and REIT analytics firm. That’s an increase from less than two years ago, when the firm predicted 10% of malls would fail or be converted.”

The article goes on to state:

” Within 15 to 20 years, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz expects as many as half of America’s shopping malls to fail.”

But while many retail analysts point to online shopping and supercentres as the winners in this battle, it seems to me that they are mistaken. Think about it… Big box stores, surrounded by parking wastelands, are actually a worse model than shopping malls. In terms of employment, they hire fewer people than their small business equivalents. In fact, according to an Intuit Small Business Innovation Study, The 77 million people that make up the US small business workforce would rank as the 17th most populous country in the world, just ahead of Iran.

As we seek urban, car-free lives, we will reject these locations and lead a movement back to our local hardware stores, butchers and bakeries. We will want to walk into our neighbourhood fruit market, pick up freshly baked bread and say hi to our friendly merchants as we wander in and out with our children.

We will fall in love with our sidewalks, pretty storefronts, and lovely streetscapes. We will come for festivals and events, meet our neighbours, and never want to return to that previous life. We will see those relics on our way in and out of town, and wonder why they were ever built.

They weren’t there for our community projects, didn’t chip in to plant flowers and never returned to our community what they took out. And as quickly as they turned their backs on our pretty Main Streets some years ago, we will reject their giant flashing lights and empty parking lots.

And when they see the future and seek to re-connect with a real community, we will welcome them with open arms.